This article includes a list of general
references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding
inline citations. (April 2009) |
Proto-Samoyed | |
---|---|
Proto-Samoyedic | |
Reconstruction of | Samoyedic languages |
Reconstructed ancestor |
Proto-Samoyedic, or Proto-Samoyed, is the reconstructed ancestral language of the Samoyedic languages: Nenets ( Tundra and Forest), Enets, Nganasan, Selkup, as well as extinct Kamas and Mator. Samoyedic is one of the principal branches of the Uralic language family, and its ancestor is Proto-Uralic. It has been suggested that Proto-Samoyedic greatly influenced the development of Tocharian, an Indo-European language. [1]
A fairly complex system of vowel phonemes is reconstructed for Proto-Samoyedic:
Front | Back | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Unrounded | Rounded | Unrounded | Rounded | |
Close | i [i] | ü [y] | ï [ɯ] | u [u] |
Mid | e [e] | ö [ø] | ë [ɤ] | o [o] |
Open | ä [æ] | a [ɑ] | å [ɒ] | |
Reduced | ə̈ [ə̟] | ə [ə̠] |
The system is retained relatively faithfully in Selkup (though expanded with vowel length). Two of the vowel contrasts are however only retained in Nganasan: the distinction of front and back reduced vowels, and that of *i versus *e. For the remainder of the family, following the mergers *e > *i and *ə̈ > *ə, a further shared change is raising of *ä > *e. [2] Earlier works often thus give a slightly different transcription of several vowels: [3]
Older reconstruction | Current reconstruction |
---|---|
*i | *i, *e |
*e | *ä |
*ä | *a |
Even though the number of vowel phonemes was high, there were no long vowels or phonemic diphthongs. A peculiar feature of the reconstructed vowel system is the occurrence of vowel sequences, which consisted of any full vowel followed by the reduced vowel /ə/: for example, *tuə 'feather', *kåəså 'man'. These sequences were not diphthongs; the vowels belonged to separate syllables. Evidence of the vowel sequences has been preserved in only part of the Samoyedic languages, primarily in Nganasan and Enets. Wagner-Nagy (2004) [4] lists the following examples:
Proto-Samoyedic had vowel harmony like many other Uralic languages. Harmony determined whether a front vocalic or a back vocalic allomorph of a suffix was used. However, the restrictions imposed by vowel harmony were not absolute because also disharmonic word-stems can be reconstructed. Such stems break vowel harmony by combining front and back vowels: e.g. Proto-Samoyedic *kålä 'fish', *wäsa 'iron'.
In contrast to the vowel system, the consonant system is rather simple with only 13 phonemes:
labial | dental | palatal | velar | |
---|---|---|---|---|
stop | p | t | k | |
affricate | c [ts] | |||
sibilant | s | |||
nasal | m | n | ń [ɲ] | ŋ |
lateral | l | |||
trill | r | |||
semivowel | w | j |
The exact sound value of the affricate is not entirely clear; it may originally have been retroflex [ʈ͡ʂ] rather than dental or alveolar [t͡s]. It has remained distinct only in Selkup, merging elsewhere with *t.
As in Proto-Uralic, the ancestor of Proto-Samoyedic, the first syllable of words was always stressed, and hence there was no contrastive stress. Contrastive tones did not occur either.
As in Proto-Uralic, words could begin with a maximum of one consonant: initial consonant clusters were not allowed. Another phonotactic constraint inherited from Proto-Uralic was that the consonants *r and *ŋ were not allowed word-initially. Proto-Samoyedic had, however, innovated final consonant clusters in a few words. In all of them, the first consonant in the cluster was the semivowel *j, as in *wajŋ 'breath'. Thus, the syllable structure of Proto-Samoyedic was altogether (C)V(j)(C).
Inside words, clusters of two consonants were common. Clusters of three consonants were again possible only if the first consonant of the cluster was *j, as in *wajkkə 'neck'.
Palatalization of consonants, most prominently *k, has occurred in all recorded Samoyedic languages. This is however a post-Proto-Samoyedic development, as the details differ in each branch due to vowel developments. [5]
Other widespread developments include prothesis of *ŋ, initial lenition of *p, and fortition of the semivowels *w, *j.
Proto-Samoyedic was a fairly typical agglutinative language with only little morphophonological alteration, apart from vowel harmony. In the following, -A marks an archiphoneme realized as -å in words with back-vocalic harmony, -ä in words with front-vocalic harmony.
Three numbers were distinguished: singular, dual and plural. Possession was indicated with possessive suffixes.
Nouns distinguished seven cases:
Verbs were conjugated for mood, tense, number and person. There were also separate subjective and objective conjugations.
Derivational suffixes were numerous, and could form both verbs and nominals. [7]
Most Proto-Samoyedic phonemes continue the corresponding Proto-Uralic phonemes unchanged. The most prominent changes are: [5] [8]
Examples:
Proto-Samoyedic numerals with wider Uralic cognates are: [10]
Innovative Proto-Samoyedic numerals with no apparent wider Uralic cognates: [10]
Janhunen, Juha 1998. Samoyedic. In: Daniel Abondolo (ed.), The Uralic Languages, pp. 457–479. London / New York: Routledge.
{{
cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)This article includes a list of general
references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding
inline citations. (April 2009) |
Proto-Samoyed | |
---|---|
Proto-Samoyedic | |
Reconstruction of | Samoyedic languages |
Reconstructed ancestor |
Proto-Samoyedic, or Proto-Samoyed, is the reconstructed ancestral language of the Samoyedic languages: Nenets ( Tundra and Forest), Enets, Nganasan, Selkup, as well as extinct Kamas and Mator. Samoyedic is one of the principal branches of the Uralic language family, and its ancestor is Proto-Uralic. It has been suggested that Proto-Samoyedic greatly influenced the development of Tocharian, an Indo-European language. [1]
A fairly complex system of vowel phonemes is reconstructed for Proto-Samoyedic:
Front | Back | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Unrounded | Rounded | Unrounded | Rounded | |
Close | i [i] | ü [y] | ï [ɯ] | u [u] |
Mid | e [e] | ö [ø] | ë [ɤ] | o [o] |
Open | ä [æ] | a [ɑ] | å [ɒ] | |
Reduced | ə̈ [ə̟] | ə [ə̠] |
The system is retained relatively faithfully in Selkup (though expanded with vowel length). Two of the vowel contrasts are however only retained in Nganasan: the distinction of front and back reduced vowels, and that of *i versus *e. For the remainder of the family, following the mergers *e > *i and *ə̈ > *ə, a further shared change is raising of *ä > *e. [2] Earlier works often thus give a slightly different transcription of several vowels: [3]
Older reconstruction | Current reconstruction |
---|---|
*i | *i, *e |
*e | *ä |
*ä | *a |
Even though the number of vowel phonemes was high, there were no long vowels or phonemic diphthongs. A peculiar feature of the reconstructed vowel system is the occurrence of vowel sequences, which consisted of any full vowel followed by the reduced vowel /ə/: for example, *tuə 'feather', *kåəså 'man'. These sequences were not diphthongs; the vowels belonged to separate syllables. Evidence of the vowel sequences has been preserved in only part of the Samoyedic languages, primarily in Nganasan and Enets. Wagner-Nagy (2004) [4] lists the following examples:
Proto-Samoyedic had vowel harmony like many other Uralic languages. Harmony determined whether a front vocalic or a back vocalic allomorph of a suffix was used. However, the restrictions imposed by vowel harmony were not absolute because also disharmonic word-stems can be reconstructed. Such stems break vowel harmony by combining front and back vowels: e.g. Proto-Samoyedic *kålä 'fish', *wäsa 'iron'.
In contrast to the vowel system, the consonant system is rather simple with only 13 phonemes:
labial | dental | palatal | velar | |
---|---|---|---|---|
stop | p | t | k | |
affricate | c [ts] | |||
sibilant | s | |||
nasal | m | n | ń [ɲ] | ŋ |
lateral | l | |||
trill | r | |||
semivowel | w | j |
The exact sound value of the affricate is not entirely clear; it may originally have been retroflex [ʈ͡ʂ] rather than dental or alveolar [t͡s]. It has remained distinct only in Selkup, merging elsewhere with *t.
As in Proto-Uralic, the ancestor of Proto-Samoyedic, the first syllable of words was always stressed, and hence there was no contrastive stress. Contrastive tones did not occur either.
As in Proto-Uralic, words could begin with a maximum of one consonant: initial consonant clusters were not allowed. Another phonotactic constraint inherited from Proto-Uralic was that the consonants *r and *ŋ were not allowed word-initially. Proto-Samoyedic had, however, innovated final consonant clusters in a few words. In all of them, the first consonant in the cluster was the semivowel *j, as in *wajŋ 'breath'. Thus, the syllable structure of Proto-Samoyedic was altogether (C)V(j)(C).
Inside words, clusters of two consonants were common. Clusters of three consonants were again possible only if the first consonant of the cluster was *j, as in *wajkkə 'neck'.
Palatalization of consonants, most prominently *k, has occurred in all recorded Samoyedic languages. This is however a post-Proto-Samoyedic development, as the details differ in each branch due to vowel developments. [5]
Other widespread developments include prothesis of *ŋ, initial lenition of *p, and fortition of the semivowels *w, *j.
Proto-Samoyedic was a fairly typical agglutinative language with only little morphophonological alteration, apart from vowel harmony. In the following, -A marks an archiphoneme realized as -å in words with back-vocalic harmony, -ä in words with front-vocalic harmony.
Three numbers were distinguished: singular, dual and plural. Possession was indicated with possessive suffixes.
Nouns distinguished seven cases:
Verbs were conjugated for mood, tense, number and person. There were also separate subjective and objective conjugations.
Derivational suffixes were numerous, and could form both verbs and nominals. [7]
Most Proto-Samoyedic phonemes continue the corresponding Proto-Uralic phonemes unchanged. The most prominent changes are: [5] [8]
Examples:
Proto-Samoyedic numerals with wider Uralic cognates are: [10]
Innovative Proto-Samoyedic numerals with no apparent wider Uralic cognates: [10]
Janhunen, Juha 1998. Samoyedic. In: Daniel Abondolo (ed.), The Uralic Languages, pp. 457–479. London / New York: Routledge.
{{
cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)